Principal's Newsletter, Week 9, Term 1, 2015

posted Mar 28, 2015, 5:26 PM by Ms. Connors

This is our last
newsletter for this term. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful contribution
to our school this year. As the holidays begin we wish our Japan Trip
travellers a fabulous trip. Thank you Ms St Louis, Ms Ng, Mr Wilson and Mr
Goggin for escorting our large group of students to Japan. An enormous thank
you to Mr Goggin who has spent the last 14 months organising this excursion. We
also wish our Robotics team, Mrs Pooviah, Dr Inglis and Ms Kong every success
as they compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championships. Another enormous
thank you to Mrs Pooviah who has spent countless hours organising the trip.

The first day of
Term 2 for students is Tuesday 21st April. On this day we will
celebrate our ANZAC service. We are honoured this year to have His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d) Governor of New South Wales as our Guest of
Honour. Our cadet unit will present an honour guard on the front lawn. Parents are very welcome to attend our
service at 9.15am on the 21st.

Another special event will be the playing of a bugle by Aaron Lawrence.
This bugle that will be usedto sound “The Last Post” and
“Reveille” at our ANZAC Remembrance Service is a Victor “Class A” silver plated
instrument made in Paris c.1900. The bugle was presented to the 5th
Light Horse Regiment in December 1914 and was taken with the Regiment when they
were sent as Reinforcements to the Middle East on 15 April 1916.It was used at Gaza, Egypt and Gallipoli.
After the First World War, the bugle has been in the possession of the Browne
family.The bugle is shortly to be
donated to the Australian War Memorial. Mr Anthony Browne, who was a student at
James Ruse Agricultural High School between 1965 -1970 and a member of the
School Army Cadet Unit and his mother, Mrs Patricia Browne, have kindly loaned
the bugle to the School to be used on this special occasion marking the one
hundredth anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli by ANZAC troops.

The Library is also completing a
wonderful display for the Centenary of ANZAC. Students and staff have been busy
knitting poppies that will be displayed on wreaths at a number of services in
the local area.

As we return to school in Term 2,
students must be in full school winter uniform. Students must wear the blazer
as their outer garment and it is very important they have this on the first day
– for our ANZAC service. The uniform shop is open next Tuesday and Wednesday if
needed. On Wednesdays Years 9-12 students must also wear the full tracksuit to
school – not shorts and T shirt.

Last Friday night
Ms St Louis and I had the privilege of attending the induction of the 2015 UNSW
COOP Scholarship holders. It was with great joy that we witnessed three of our
fabulous students from 2014 – Tanya Han, Grace Xia and Kathy Xu – receive these
amazing scholarships. These scholarships recognise academic success, combined
with a person’s ability to demonstrate leadership, creative thinking, problem
solving and commitment to service. The scholarship holders have moved through a
rigorous application and interview process to be successful.

This
week Year 9 put together another superb year assembly. It was inspiring to hear
of their awards and also journey so far this year. Two performances were
also very special.

On Monday
afternoon we will hold our first parent teacher event for 2015. Year 12 are
encouraged to attend with their parents. The interviews will be held in the L
Block classrooms and library.

This week we have
been implementing a new software application called SENTRAL. This new software
should allow us to communicate more effectively with parents and with each
other here at school. Emails generated from this system will come from the jamesruse-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au email address. Attendance will also be
monitored through this new system and early in term 2 we will begin sending
texts etc via this new system. It is very important that we have a correct
email address for parents. We will test this early in term 2.

Thank you to the
many parents and students who joined us for our first Ensemble concert for
2015. It was another wonderful night. Thank you to
Mr Brus, Ms Hann, Dr Clarke, Mr Jackson and Ms Pringle for organising the night
and conducting our ensembles.

Next week invoices for 2015 should arrive in the mail for families that
have outstanding amounts. If you could please pay by 7th May it
would be greatly appreciated. If you are able to contribute to the Building
Fund it would be a wonderful help to the refurbishment of our three oldest
science labs. We need an additional $100,000 on what we presently have to
ensure we are able to furnish the laboratories with the best equipment and
facilities. The Building Fund is a tax deductible donation and can be claimed
on this year's financial return.